Mobile phones and other types of mobile communication stations include sophisticated hardware and software designed to enhance the user experience. One of the more recent features to be incorporated into mobile phones is positioning technology. Mobile positioning technology such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), and non-GPS location techniques, which require knowledge of the location of the base station tower or antenna that the phone is currently using to establish communication, allow a user to determine his or her current location. Applications residing on the mobile phone may offer various location-based services that use such positioning information.
One problem that arises when non-GPS location techniques are employed is that they are not always accurate or up to date. Moreover, their accuracy is generally inferior to the accuracy that is available with GPS location techniques.